


Braiding

by gijane7702



Series: Happily Ever After [1]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Babyfic, Children, F/M, Married Life, Old Married Couple, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fluffy fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:54:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24194686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gijane7702/pseuds/gijane7702
Summary: He'll learn one day ...
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Series: Happily Ever After [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1800247
Comments: 12
Kudos: 64





	Braiding

"Daddy … my braid fell out."

Chakotay looked up from the PADD he was reading then down into the dark blue eyes of his four-year-old daughter, Chaska, sitting on the cushion beside him on the couch. As she climbed up into his lap he quickly put the PADD aside and noticed her thick black hair was completely disheveled and knotted. He could only imagine what she had gotten up to, knowing what she was capable of, even at her young age and small size. He or Kathryn would find a mess somewhere in the house later on. 

"Where's Mommy?" Chakotay asked, knowing Kathryn was also somewhere in the house. 

"She talkin' to Auntie ’Lanna … You do." Chaska held her hot pink ribbon and a hairbrush in her petite hand as she crawled around his lap so her back was to him. "Make me pretty, Daddy." 

Kolopak and Callen, both sitting at the dining room table doing homework, snickered at him. Both boys immediately buried their heads back into their books when their father glared over at them. Their sister, though seven years younger, also glared at them, her look promising revenge she was actually capable of delivering on. Both boys shivered in anticipation. 

"Daddy only asked for Mommy because remember what happened last time Daddy did your hair?” Chaoktay reminded Chaska. It had been very, very ugly … Kathryn had pretty much banned him from touching their daughter's head ever again. 

“Daddy!” she said firmly, jaw set.

Kole chuckled, then immediately turned it into a cough. Chaska went to throw her hairbrush at him but Chakotay covered her hand with his before she could. Callen's shoulders were shaking with laughter. Chakotay noticed that his middle child had set aside his homework PADD and taken out a sketchbook and charcoal pencil. The artist was already capturing the moment for eternity.

Kole pushed back his chair, stood up, and jogged off to the kitchen. He returned with a small spray bottle, which he handed to his father. With a shrug, he nonchalantly said, "Mom says it's easier to do her hair when it's wet." He then sauntered back to the table and picked up his PADD back up. 

"Thanks, Little Warrior," Chakotay said, smirking as Kole's cheeks reddened. He glared at his father, who winked back. Though now thirteen, he still appreciated his childhood term of endearment. After all, Dad was Big Warrior. 

Chakotay sprayed down Chaska's mid-back-length hair. She handed him the hairbrush over her shoulder. Chakotay gently began brushing, afraid to pull hard on the knots.

"Place your palm right over the knot then brush," Callen told him, not breaking stride in his sketching.

"Yes … Callen right," Chaska agreed. 

"Ok … if you two know what to do, then why don't you help me?" Chakotay said, exasperated. The boys, only two years apart, looked at each other. They silently communicated just as Chakotay and Kathryn did, then shrugged in agreement. Kole came over to their father while Callen flipped to a new page and began to sketch the new scene. 

"Hi, Kole," Chaska greeted her oldest brother with a dimpled grin. He grinned back at her. "Show Daddy … Mommy say he get it 'ventually."

Though they teased her, as siblings have done since the beginning of time, both boys were completely in love with their little sister, having fallen for her the moment their parents had announced, not only Kathryn's completely unexpected pregnancy, but the fact the baby was a girl. Chaska, in turn, absolutely adored her big brothers. She had ruled the household with an iron fist from the moment she had come home from Starfleet Medical. Even Fleet Admiral Janeway bowed down to her wishes … most of the time. 

"No owies, Daddy. You do good job," Chaska told her father once he was done brushing her hair. "Now … braid."

"Ponytail?" Chakotay suggested hopefully.

"Braid!" He was told firmly, his daughter's face set in the “I've Made My Mind Up And There's Absolutely No Changing It” look Chakotay had seen for years on Kathryn's face in the Delta Quadrant. 

Kole grinned, supervising his father, who rolled his eyes and parted his daughter’s hair into three sections then braided it to the best of his ability. Rolling his eyes at the results, Kole undid the mess his father had created, then rebrushed and rebraided his sister's hair while Chakotay appreciated the subtle red highlights shining in the sun streaming in through the window. Chaska handed Kole the ribbon over her shoulder and he quickly tied her hair off. 

Chakotay sighed. Kole made it look so easy. But for him, so far, little girls and their ways were proving to be an enigma.

"So pretty," Chaska announced after jumping off Chakotay’s lap and running over to examine her hair in the full-length mirror by the front door. "Kole do good job … Daddy, you learn 'ventually." She patted her father's knee in consolation. "Love you … bye.” 

With that pronouncement, Chaska sauntered off towards the back of the house. "Hi, Mommy," she said as she passed Kathryn who was leaning on the wall between the living room and the corridor to the bedrooms, where she had been secretly observing her family. 

"Hi, little one," Kathryn replied, bending for a quick kiss. The four-year-old was always good for kisses and she peppered her mother’s face with them. "You're right … Daddy will eventually learn. Look how long it took me to break him in."

Kathryn chuckled as Chaska walked away laughing. Chakotay turned his head and shot his wife a glare. She smirked at him then sashayed over and dropped into his lap. Chakotay kissed her, but not quickly enough for the boys not to notice, and they gagged at the display of their parents' affection.

Kathryn shot them both looks, then kissed Chakotay passionately and noisily. The boys started laughing when from the back of the house Chaska yelled, "No kissy face … I the baby!"

"She told you guys," Kole drawled. 

Kathryn ignored all of her children and kissed Chakotay again. “Mommy!” Chaska bellowed. “ _No kissy face!_ ”

“How is she all-knowing?” Kathryn asked her husband.

“Well … it was your idea to name her after a goddess,” Chakotay chuckled as Kathryn dropped her head on his shoulder and sighed. “Our daughter more than likely carries Her blessing.”

“That would be just my luck,” Kathryn groaned.

“I hear that!” Chaska hollered. 

“Of course you did,” her mother muttered. Chakotay and the boys just laughed. 

It was just another day in the Janeway household.

**Author's Note:**

> Kolopak: (Kole) named after Chakotay's father  
> Callen: Powerful in battle. Callen is a unisex Gaelic name  
> Chaska: the Incan goddess of dawn and twilight, the planet
> 
> Thanks to Trekflower for the beta ... thanks to coffeeblack75 for letting me bounce ideas off of her ...
> 
> This fic came into being because the Work Husband (who has two sons) was amazed I could braid my hair in the office with no mirror or brush ... it's not runway worthy, but it does to get it out of my face ... and ensuing conversation followed about learning and daddies and the lot ... 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed !!


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